The Colombian bishops are inviting the faithful of their country to
take part in a pilgrimage for peace and reconciliation during the
national Week for Peace this month.
“Peace has been one of the great concerns of the Church throughout the
centuries,” said Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota, president of
the Colombian Bishops Conference.
The pilgrimage – which began Sept. 8 – comes after the initiation of
peace talks between the government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of
Colombia, a revolutionary guerrilla organization that had been in
conflict with the state for decades.
Given these circumstances, Cardinal Salazar said, “the prayer for peace
has become even more urgent and necessary. For this reason the Church
calls us to go on pilgrimage for peace and reconciliation.”
The director of the National Secretariat for Social Ministry, Bishop
Hector Fabio Henao, said the Week for Peace will take place Sept. 8-15
in Colombia and is intended to help encourage the peace process
currently ongoing in the country.
“The Week for Peace aims to send a very strong message that Colombian
society supports the negotiations to end the conflict, that it agrees
that negotiated political solutions be sought for the conflict that has
left the Colombian society with so much destruction and death in these
decades,” he said.
The statue of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patroness of Colombia, will
be taken on pilgrimage to areas throughout the country during the Week
of Peace.
The Dominican order in Colombia has assumed the role of organizing and
leading the pilgrimage.
In each city along the route, the local bishop
will welcome the statue of Our Lady of Chiquinquira and join the
faithful in prayers for peace.